This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

The Brick is an independent bar, kitchen, and small live-music room at 1727 McGee Street in the Crossroads Arts District, owned since 1999 by Sheri Parr. The building had operated as a newspaper workers’ bar for roughly three decades before she bought it. The room books local bands most nights it is open, typically on three-act bills pairing a touring act with two local ones, alongside poetry readings, storytelling nights, and recurring oddball contests.

Description

The Brick is a bar, kitchen, and small live-music room at 1727 McGee Street in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District. Sheri Parr bought the business in 1999; before that the building had served for roughly 33 years as a bar for newspaper workers, a lineage that puts continuous bar use on the corner back to about the mid-1960s.1

The room’s identity is the overlap of three things that usually live apart in Kansas City: an affordable comfort-food kitchen, a nightly stage for local bands, and a regulars’ bar. Local coverage returns repeatedly to that mix — a meatloaf sandwich and a touring band on the same ticket — and to the room’s function as a neighborhood living room in a district that has otherwise gentrified around it.23

The Brick is not affiliated with a national promoter and books its own calendar.4

Programming

  • Live music most nights the room is open, Tuesday through Saturday.52
  • Three-act bills are the house format: typically one touring act supported by two local acts.4
  • Poetry readings and storytelling nights in rotation with music.2
  • Band Scramble — a recurring event in which members of local bands are redistributed into new temporary lineups, run by owner Sheri Parr.6
  • Genre range is broad and local-leaning rather than a single-format room; no resident genre policy stated. “

The room

The Brick is a single-room bar with a stage, in a masonry storefront building on McGee Street. Published capacity, stage dimensions, and PA specification were not located in a first-party or press source during this pass — booking-directory listings exist but were not treated as authoritative. “

The kitchen operates alongside the music, which is unusual for a room of this size in Kansas City and is a large part of the venue’s identity.3

History

The address has been a bar considerably longer than it has been The Brick. Prior to 1999 it operated for roughly 33 years as a newspaper workers’ bar, serving staff of the nearby downtown newspaper operation.1 Sheri Parr purchased the business in 1999 and has owned and operated it since, making her one of the longer-tenured independent venue owners in the metro.12

Over that period the surrounding Crossroads shifted from a warehouse and printing district into an arts and dining district, and The Brick’s persistence through that change is a recurring theme in local coverage of the bar.2

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Kansas City Boutique — “Kansas City Spotlight: The Brick” — asserts: The Brick has been a Kansas City staple since 1999; Sheri Parr bought the bar in 1999; the building had been a newspaper bar for 33 years before that. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. KCUR (NPR, Kansas City) — Up To Date, “At The Brick in the Crossroads Arts District, these Kansas Citians ‘just get to feel at home’” (January 7, 2024) — asserts: The Brick as a Crossroads community hub; owner Sheri Parr; long-time customers as an extended family; local bands, poetry readings, storytelling sessions, and recurring contests on Tuesday and Friday nights. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Feast Magazine — “Serving up meatloaf sandwiches and live music in equal measure, The Brick caters to all crowds in Kansas City” — asserts: comfort-food kitchen operating alongside the music program; meatloaf sandwich as the house signature; broad crowd mix. ↩ ↩2

  4. Indie on the Move — venue profile, The Brick, Kansas City, MO — asserts: booking practice of three-band bills with one touring act and two local acts; direct venue booking rather than promoter-brokered. Booking directory, used only for booking practice, not for status or capacity. ↩ ↩2

  5. The Brick — official site — asserts: The Brick is a restaurant, bar and live music venue at 1727 McGee, Kansas City, MO 64108; live music and performance art Tuesday through Saturday nights. About page: thebrickkc.com; contact page: thebrickkc.com (Accessed via search 2026-08-13 — see method note below.) ↩

  6. The Pitch — “The Brick’s Sheri Parr breaks down Band Scramble” — asserts: Sheri Parr as owner and organizer of the recurring Band Scramble event at The Brick. Companion profile: thepitchkc.com ↩

See also

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/the-brick · record updated 2026-08-13